2016 Okanagan Zone Theatre Festival, Oliver B.C.

May 25, 2016

Eight Great Days to Play in May

South Okanagan Amateur Players Society is honoured to host the 2016 Theatre British Columbia, Okanagan Zone Festival. This year’s festival will be presented in the beautiful Frank Venables Theatre in Oliver, starting Saturday May 21st with seven nights of performances, and closing on Saturday May 28th with a public awards banquet.

Saturday May 21

Rabbit Hole, by David Lindsay-Abaire
Presented by Crimson Tine Players (Princeton)Becca and Howie Corbett have everything a family could want, until a life-shattering accident turns their world upside down and leaves the couple drifting perilously apart. RABBIT HOLE charts their bittersweet search for comfort in the darkest of places and for a path that will lead them back into the light of day.Winner of the 2007 Pulitzer Prize. “David Lindsay-Abaire has crafted a drama that’s not just a departure but a revelation — an in-tensely emotional examination of grief, laced with wit, insightfulness, compassion and searing honesty.” – Variety

Sunday May 22

The Pillowman by Martin McDonagh
Presented by Fred Skeleton Theatre Company (Kelowna)With echoes of Stoppard, Kafka, and the Brothers Grimm, THE PILLOWMAN centers on a writer in an unnamed totalitarian state who is being interrogated about the gruesome content of his short stories and their similarities to a series of child murders. The result is an urgent work of theatrical bravura and an unflinching examination of the very nature and purpose of art.“Energizing…a blindingly bright black comedy…[what makes] the unsettling and exhilarating new play from Mr. McDonagh…so gripping as theater is how narrative art becomes the play’s and the character’s very life blood.” – NY Times.

Monday May 23

Note: A limited number of tickets for this performance only are also available at Sundance Video in Oliver. For best seat selection, use the online link above.

Sleeping Indoors by Jim Holt
Presented by South Okanagan Amateur Players (Oliver/Osoyoos)When literary reviewer Paul and his wife Nora invite a homeless man, Dwain, into their home for Christmas dinner, they don’t expect to be so charmed by him — or that his journal will be the incredible literary masterpiece that it is. But can Dwain, whose art thrives in anonymity, be convinced to give up the only life he’s known for such comforts as sleeping indoors?“Sleeping Indoors challenges perceptions and stereotypes about the homeless and raises intriguing questions about what really constitutes a ‘good life.'” – The River

“None of Sleeping Indoors plays out the way you’ll expect it to, which will not only keep you guessing, it’ll keep you entertained, and engaged.” – Connect Savannah

Tuesday May 24

Posing for Mr. Wiser by Michael L. Poirier
Presented by Back Stage Theatre (Vernon)Mr. Wiser is a retired police officer who has been soured over the years by a broken marriage, a son that never met his standards and dealing with the criminal element of society. Most of his depressive nature is self deserving. As a young man, he drew charcoal portraits to pay his way through college, in his retirement he decides that he will paint the new age “Mona Lisa”. The only trouble is, the women he hires to pose take an hour or less of his attitude and never come back.Emily Taylor, a twenty one year old, shows up at his studio to be his next victim; however she’s different, she sees something in Mr. Wiser that others overlook. She comes back for a second sitting!

Wednesday May 25

Unnecessary Farce by Paul Slade Smith
Presented by Powerhouse Theatre (Vernon)Two cops. Three crooks. Eight doors. Go. In a cheap motel room, an embezzling mayor is supposed to meet with his female accountant, while in the room next door, two undercover cops wait to catch the meeting on videotape. But there’s some confusion as to who’s in which room, who’s being videotaped, who’s taken the money, who’s hired a hit man, and why the accountant keeps taking off her clothes.“Nonstop hilarity. Gets us laughing in the show’s first minute. Unnecessary Farce? Don’t you believe it! Nothing could be more necessary for your well-being.” – The Lansing State Journal

Thursday May 26

The Maids by Jean Genet
Presented by Asparagus Community Theatre (Armstrong)Solange and Claire are two housemaids who construct elaborate sadomasochistic rituals when their mistress (Madame) is away. The focus of their role-playing is the murder of Madame and they take turns portraying both sides of the power divide. Their deliberate pace and devotion to detail guarantees that they always fail to actualize their fantasies by ceremoniously “killing” Madame at the ritual’s dénouement.Genet loosely based his play on the infamous sisters Christine and Léa Papin, who brutally murdered their employer and her daughter in Le Mans, France, in 1933.

Jean Genet’s The Maids, […] turns 70 next year but still offers the lure of something wicked: moral putrefaction, erotic abandon, galvanic electrodes applied to social and theatrical norms. – The Telegraph

Friday May 27

I Had a Job I Liked. Once. by Guy Vanderhaeghe
Presented by Shuswap Theatre (Salmon Arm)Is justice black and white? In a world of quick condemnations and mandatory minimums, a by-the-book RCMP sergeant must uncover the truth. The local Crown Attorney’s daughter has accused Les Grant, a teenager from the the wrong side of the tracks, of an egregious crime. Now it falls on the jaded officer to decide. Is he guilty? What is he hiding? Why won’t he tell the truth?Winner of the Canadian Authors’ Association Award for Drama.

Arts Councils

Who We Are

The Osoyoos & District Arts Council is a registered B.C. society and a federally-registered charity that can issue receipts for donations. The Board of Directors is comprised entirely of volunteers, with no paid staff.